SERMON 61 - SUNDAY 26 JULY 2015

Sermon delivered St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel, Whaddon  – Sunday 26th July 2015

Job 19:1-27a; Psalm 74; Hebrews 8

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

In my recent sermons, which I have preached during the last month or so within the Clarendon Team area, my theme has been one of hope through times of despair and destruction – the need to keep our Faith when all around seems to be disintegrating.  Whether in our personal lives, work lives or in the life of the church we face many challenges and trials which being a Christian will not prevent but which, with our faith we can overcome.  This has followed a study of Job from the Lectionary readings for this last month – a book in which many lives can be reflected – we have good times and we have bad ones, but by continuing to keep our Faith in the one who was sent to redeem us we can weather the storms which we do have to face from time to time.

On a first hearing, tonight’s reading all seem quite depressing. Tonight’s Psalm, also, is a lament and begins in a very negative manner –

“O God, why have you utterly disowned us? •
Why does your anger burn
against the sheep of your pasture?”

As I continued to read Psalm 74, I was reminded of my recent trip to France and in particular to the preserved ruins of the small town of Oradour-sur-Glane near Limoges and in particular the verses which read:-

3          Hasten your steps towards the endless ruins, •
where the enemy has laid waste all your sanctuary.

4          Your adversaries roared in the place of your worship; •
they set up their banners as tokens of victory.

5          Like men brandishing axes on high in a thicket of trees, •
all her carved work they smashed down with hatchet and hammer.

6          They set fire to your holy place; •
they defiled the dwelling place of your name
and razed it to the ground.

7          They said in their heart, 'Let us make havoc of them altogether,' •
and they burned down all the sanctuaries of God in the land.

These verses were written at a time nearly 3,000 years ago but as the ruins of Oradour testify today, they equally could have applied to a Saturday afternoon in June 1944 when a detachment of elite German Nazi-SS soldiers arrived shortly after lunchtime, rounded up 642 of the inhabitants, men women and children, and separating them into two groups – men and women and children, marched the men to various barns where they were shot and their bodies burned and marched the women and children into the previous sanctuary of the local church where after hearing the gunfire of their menfolk being killed were then locked in the church and burned alive – in the words of the psalm –

“They set fire to your holy place, they defiled the dwelling place of your name and razed it to the ground”.

Oradour features at the beginning and end of that epic series “The World at War” narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier.  Oradour, he says, stands and a monument and reminder for the many who lost their lives during the great conflict which was the Second World War - which ended just under 70 years ago - and which we will celebrate next month.

Oradour was a peaceful little town before the soldiers came.  The local mayor had been chosen because he supported the Vichy regime and had advocated a peaceful co-existence with the German occupiers.  Not a collaborator as such but someone who felt it better for the villagers to “bide their time” until things became better. In fact, the German soldiers chose the wrong village – their intended target was another Oradour to the south of Limoges. Just as with Job, he was a peaceful God-fearing man who was put to a trial in order to test his Faith in an extra-terrestrial contest. And like Job, our Faith will be tested from time to time – not, hopefully in the manner experienced by Job or the inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane, but in our everyday lives. We can choose to do one of two things, when our Faith is tested, either give in to the temptations which surround us and which seek to weaken our Faith, or stand up to them and reject them just in the same way Christ was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and stood up against him. Jesus knows what it is to be tempted, to be faced with the prospect of giving in to those forces which would seek to knock us off the pathway of our Christian journey.

The theolgian Jeff Lucas often quips in his frequent sermons and addresses to Christian groups how, when he first became a Christian he preached something along these lines:

“If you are a Christian you will not have any problems  – but

If you are a Christian, and you pray to Jesus the problems will go away – but

If you are a Christian and you pray and the problems don’t go away then perhaps you are not really a Christian at all and you now have a bigger problem then when you first started!”

Jeff now laughs at his own arrogance and the incorrectness of this simple sermon theme. The truth is, whether we have problems or not we should pray to God through Jesus not only by way of supplication – asking for things, but also in adoration, confession and thanksgiving (ACTS). The Lord’s prayer follows precisely this format:

Adoration  -  “Hallowed be your Name”

Confession – “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”

Thanksgiving – “Your will be done”, “Yours is the Kingdom”

Supplication – “Give us this day our daily bread”

Our prayers will be answered, but not necessarily in the manner or in the time scale we expect.  It is worth sitting down and reflecting upon some of the prayers you have sent up to God in the past.  Most will have been answered – some are still waiting to be answered. Psalm 74 is a prayer – setting out the events which have caused the petitioner distress and entreating God to look after the poor and distressed who have remained loyal to him.  Many of those prayers which you have previously prayed may have been answered in a completely different manner to what you expected. Some may have been answered in a manner beyond your wildest dreams – but Jesus told us, emphatically, that they would be answered.

Next to the ruins of the old town of Oradour-sur-Glane, rises the new town with it church reminiscent of the interior of Coventry Cathedral – that other great phoenix from the Second World War.  It was built on the basis of a new hope for a better future than the past.  In the book of Job we finally read of the phoenix life of that book’s hero when God restores to him his wealth and fortune several times over. We have been lucky – we have never experienced another terrible war in Europe since 1945 – but we do face other problems – economic, social and religious. We read of the rise of financial strife in European countries, of religious intolerance in some of our own towns and cities.  In the 1920s and early 1930s these problems beset Weimar Germany and a secular regime, built on pandering to the fears of ordinary people using media (far less sophisicated than we have today) and other forms of propaganda, led to the formation of a political system capable of sending those troops to Oradour.

The church throughout the world has a role to play in reducing such fear.  By acting as true Christians, loving one another and helping those in need, we can be a beacon in a society which has lost its way and which is fast become self-obsessed and self-centred and fearful. 

Although I am an Anglican minister I am a great admirer of the present pontiff, Francis, and I daily read his reflections contained in this little book.  Today’s reflection on Jesus’s words in Matthew I think encapsulates what I am trying to convey to you tonight:

“You have heard that it was said “An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth.  But I tell you this, do not oppose Evil with Evil” (Matthew 38-39).

It is for this reason that the writer in Hebrews talks about the old Covenant with Moses having been surpassed by the new Covenant of Jesus Christ.

God created a perfect world but we humans tainted it with sin.  The covenants of the Old Testament didn’t work but we have the blessing of the New Covenant or Testament and its teachings of “love which surpasses all understanding” as the King James version so beautifully puts it. The love of God and our love of each other.

Remember that love is there for each and everyone of us who accept Jesus as our Saviour and redeemer. So let us go forward with the knowledge that the greatest weapon against the evils of this world is the love of our Creator and that we should honour and worship him by the way we lead our lives of Faith.

 

 Amen

 

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SERMON 60 - SUNDAY 12 JULY 2015

Sermon delivered at All Saints Church, Whiteparish  – Sunday 12th July 2015

Job 4:1; 5:6-27;  Psalm 66; Romans 15:14-29

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

Although a “dyed in the wool” Anglican, I have been much impressed by the writings and sayings and actions of our current pope, Francis, whose name was well chosen and recently I acquired this little book of daily reflections entitled “A Year with Pope Francis”.  It is full of very wise reflections mainly taken from his much larger works.

Today’s reflection, very much dovetails with the reading we had from Job in its thinking that we, as humans, can easily lose sight of the fact that God is there always and it is by his will and guidance that our lives should be structured.  Today’s reflection reads as follows:-

“Many men and women are experiencing more and more today serious lowliness and neglect as a result of their excessive zeal for autonomy which they inherited from modernity; but mostly they lost the support of something that transcends them”.

In simpler terms, Pope Francis reflects that lowliness (and perhaps a form of loneliness too) and neglect arises when we try and go it alone – to forget our spirtuality and believe that we are able to solve problems and undertake great tasks without the support of the one whom we Christians believe is behind everything – our Creator.  Those who are bereft of his support, because they do not seek it or believe it exists, are missing something wonderful and great.

In our reading from Job, Job’s comforter, Eliphaz, reminds the poor beleaguered hero of that Old Testament book that if he were in Job’s shoes he would appeal to God and and lay his cause before him – in other words, just as Pope Francis is pointing out in his reflection, there is one to whom you can press your suit, one who will listen and to whom your burden can be shared. 

Eliphaz reminds job, also, that God is capable of immense power and can perform wonders which cannot either be counted or comprehended. His power is such that the plans or the craftiest can be thwarted.  Indeed wonderful words from the comforter to the afflicted.

How often have we ourselves felt in a low or desperate place or situation?  Having Faith does not mean that you shouldn’t feel low or dejected at times.  All of us have or will experience great times of despair and wonder what life or death is all about – especially at times of grieving.  What we as Christians can be sure of, though, is that we are never alone at those times. We have a great comforter in Jesus Christ who endured the lowest of times, abandoned by his close friends, falsely accused by the church he grew up in, handed over to a foreign occupying power and horribly put to death after further torture.  As God’s own true Son, God himself understands our pain and suffering at those low times and he hurts along with us. 

Pope Francis is not saying that there will be no bad times but he is saying that more and more people are finding it hard to cope because they do not put their trust and faith in that “which transcends them”.  In other words they have nothing to put their trust and faith in when their earthly colleagues and things let them down.

When I was a boy I remember making a wonky bookcase – largely because I didn’t follow closely the instructions of my woodwork teacher but used a chisel which took off more wood than was needed.  Nevertheless I felt I had achieved something. It worked provided I didn’t stand the books upright!  I was therefore quite upset when my father, a much more skilled woodworker than I ever could be, set about “de-wonkying” it – if there is such a word.  However, it did teach me a lesson, not to be so arrogant or proud as not to listen, learn and watch.  I haven’t attempted any more bookcases – other than those which come in flat packs from IKEA – and they are challenging enough – but I did understand there are times when you just have to hand over a bad situation to your Father (God in this analogy) and he will put it right.  God wants us to prosper and not fail – like my father with the bookcase – he will show us and guide us if we pray about things and ask for his help.  He will then bless us and we should bless him too.

We often say “God Bless” as a matter of course but do we really ever stop and think what it is we are actually asking? It is, in effect, a short prayer for the other person.  Go ahead now and say it to the person next to you.  “God Bless”. You have just said an short open prayer for them.  Everyone here tonight has been prayed for individually that God will sned their blessing on them.

Our Psalm. 66, is all about praising God and thanking him for his blessings. Such rich and wonderful words – as with Job’s comforter, this song is reminding us of the extent and depth of God’s wondrous deeds! The psalmist describes how he came through such dreadful times yet God helped him triumph.  The bible is just so full of such great illustrations of God’s triumphant ways.  Yes, as followers of Christ we are not immune to trials and tribulations but we can weather the storm when we have Jesus on board – just as the disciples weathered the storm on the lake with Jesus in the boat.

In our second reading, from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, the theme continues with Paul reminding his audience that they are already blessed with the knowledge of God’s good grace and that it extends not just to those of the Jewish faith but to all – the Gentiles as well, as he puts it. Again he refers to signs and wonders performed by Jesus to illustrate the mighty and wondrous power of God which Job’s comforter talks about, and that it is the duty of all followers of Christ to proclaim the good news of the gospel so that those who have not yet heard of God’s wonderful power may have an opportunity to do so. 

In a world so troubled as ours there is so much scope to tell people of the wonderful grace which our Faith teaches us.  This is probably why areas of Africa and China are growing in the Faith to the extent they are in the face of opposition and oppression. There are also so many people here in the United Kingdom who have lost the support of that which transcends them. This week, make a point of saying that short prayer, “God Bless”, to somebody new every day hoping that they will indeed be blessed with the knowledge of God’s good grace through the Holy Spirit.

Amen

 

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SERMON 59 - SUNDAY 28 JUNE 2015

Sermon delivered at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean – Sunday 28th June 2015

Lamentations 3:23-33; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7-24; Mark 5:21-43.

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

“Down this road, on a summer day in 1944. . . The soldiers came. Nobody lives here now. They stayed only a few hours. When they had gone, the community which had lived for a thousand years. . . was dead.”

Does anyone know where that quote comes from?  Here is a clue, it was famously narrated by Sir. Laurence Olivier in the early 1970s. 

Here is the rest of the quote:-

“This is Oradour-sur-Glane, in France. The day the soldiers came, the people were gathered together. The men were taken to garages and barns, the women and children were led down this road . . . and they were driven. . . into this church. Here, they heard the firing as their men were shot. Then. . . they were killed too….” 

It is the opening and closing sequences of that epic series, The World at War, which continues to be shown on the satellite channels and is an enduring memorial, as is the village of Oradour itself, to the sufferings, deprivations and sheer evil perpetrated during the Second World War, the end of the European part of which we have recently been celebrating 70 years on.

A week ago I had the opportunity to visit Oradour whilst on holiday in France.  The old village (really a small town like Stockbridge) has been preserved just as it was left by the Nazi German forces which carried out its destruction. After shooting 642 men, women and children in a few hours on 10^th June 1944 and looting the deserted houses, they systematically set fire to every building in the small town and burned the bodies of those they shot – many of whom were still alive.

In 2012 I revisited Auschwitz-Birkenau another great memorial to Nazi atrocities and suffering – the place reeked of death and destruction and evil – even nearly 70 years later – for it was a place designed and constructed for death. 

However, despite the terrible events of 10^th June 1944, and the suffering and evil committed in and to that French community near Limoges, Oradour did not have that same feeling of sheer evil which pervades the site of the great death camp in Poland.  Admittedly what happened at Birkenau was on the scale of millions, rather than hundreds, but Oradour had been a town built for life, not death, and despite its destruction many symbols of normal and happy life are still to be seen – cars, bicycles, children’s bicycles, buggies and toys, sewing machines, pots and pans, even the butcher’s scales upon which he would have weighed out his last sausages that fateful Saturday morning before the Germans arrived.  The small town has a feeling of defiance of good over evil and this is highlighted by the building of the new town of Oradour immediately to the north of the destroyed and preserved old one.  In that new town is a beautiful new church of similar design inside to Coventry Cathedral, that other great symbol of rebirth or resurrection. Oradour may be preserved to remember the evil of that dreadful day, and rightly so, but to me it also emphasised what all us Christians believe – suffering will ultimately lead to resurrection and eternal life – just as our Saviour died on the Cross and was raised up three days later.

Each of today’s readings, and Psalm 30, which is the alternative text to our first scripture reading this morning, talks about this topic.  In Lamentations, we hear some comforting words for us in time of great trial and suffering, when God may seem to have deserted us, we are reminded that we must stick with him and bide our time:

“It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord … to give one’s cheek to the smiter and be filled with insults;

For the Lord will not reject forever; although he causes grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

For he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone”

In other words, being followers of the Faith does not necessarily bring about a total lack of grief or suffering, indeed, as Christian we can often more readily expect it as our brothers and sister are enduring it now in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The writer of Lamentations is telling us it is good to wait upon the Lord, to show our faith and belief in his salvation - for those things which trouble and afflict us will turn around on God’s compassion for us. 

In Psalm 30, which we did not have read today, we hear from the psalmist of his lamentation at the way he has been treated by his enemies, but this becomes a song of praise for his redemption at the hands of the Lord. He has been “brought up from the dead” (Verse 3) and gives thanks to God “For his wrath endures the twinkling of an eye but his favour endures for a lifetime. Heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning” (Verse 5).  What a beautiful line and I’ll say it again - “For his wrath endures the twinkling of an eye but his favour endures for a lifetime. Heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. How encouraging is that? And later on the psalmist writes “You have turned my mourning into dancing” (Verse 11).

On the west wall of the new church in the new town of Oradour-sur-Glane  is a magnificent mural of St. Martin on his horse, cutting his cloak to give a part to the naked beggar before him and it reminded me of the passage which we had read this morning from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  St. Martin, when confronted by the beggar showed to him that compassion which is spoken of in Lamentations – “According to the abundance of his steadfast love” (Verse 32).   St. Martin could have given the whole of his cloak to the beggar but did not.  He took his sword and cut off a portion of it just sufficient for the beggar’s needs without detriment to his own personal safety and comfort.  Likewise, I firmly believe that God will often test us, as Paul is testing the church in Corinth, by giving to God and to our fellow creatures sufficient for their needs in a sacrificial but not a self-destroying way.  God frequently tests us, tests our fidelity and commitment and will provide trials but also opportunities to demonstrate our utmost faith in him.

In our gospel reading, we heard the two very well-known accounts of the bleeding (and by the custom of day “unclean”) woman and the dead girl of Jairus. Both of these instances involve people who believed that they were in a terrible and terminal situation – the women had been afflicted, we read, for twelve years and couldn’t be cured despite the administrations of several doctors, and as for Jairus’s daughter, Jesus had been delayed by the sick woman and it appeared all too late for him to cure her.  Here we learn three lessons about Jesus and God’s good grace – first of all, as with the sick woman we can act audaciously and connect with him outright for his forgiveness, healing or any other supplication – the woman simply touched him; secondly, He is never too busy for us (and we should never be too busy for him – Jesus was rushing off on an errand of mercy to heal Jairus’s daughter but he had time to stop and talk to the sick woman and heal her; and thirdly it is never too late for God to deal with our own sufferings and we should realise that he works to a different time scale to us – Jairus and his wife thought it was too late to heal their daughter, she was dead – but we are never too late to be redeemed. Jesus worked to his time scale not theirs and resurrected her.

Whether our supplications are personal, for others or for our church, these rules apply. God will stop and listen to us, however busy he might be, he will act and redeem us but at times which are more suitable to him and us, knowing our needs better than we do ourselves.  Things may look hopeless, evil may be around us, we may feel persecuted or unable to cope, but by prayer and faith he will overcome for us all our difficulties. Faith is the key and that Faith will be tested from time to time.

At the moment you may feel that the Christian community here in West Dean is struggling – and yes maybe it is – but in time, and in God’s time, and by Faith – our Faith, those struggles will turn to joy.  Things may be very different to how we have them now, and we are currently praying for a new minister here, but God wants us to thrive – in the words of Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know what plans I have for you, to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future”.

At the beginning of this sermon I quoted the words spoken by Sir Laurence Olivier at the beginning of “The World at War” and which are repeated at the end of the very last episode:

“Down this road the soldiers came….”

It echoes the words of John 18:12 in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Then a detachment of soldiers with its Commander and the Jewish officials came…”

This, of course, would lead to the cruel death of Jesus on the Cross but with it the Glorious Resurrection.

Amen

 

MFB/59

SERMON 58 - SUNDAY 14 JUNE 2015

Sermon delivered at St. John’s Church, West Grimstead – Sunday 14th June 2015

Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 92; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17; Mark 4:26-34.

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

Anyone who knows me well will also know that I am no horticulturalist. Some people, and I do envy them, have wonderful green fingers, not only growing wonderful shrubs, flowers and vegetables in their gardens but also on their allotments as well – such gluttons for punishment in my world - and it always intrigues me to see how well the plant stalls do at our fetes and local produce shows.  For me, I need to keep away from those stalls because anything and everything I buy ends up dead quite soon afterwards. I have a massive number of empty plant pots in my shed, like tombstones, to testify to this!   I am the one person who, in a glut year for runner beans managed to grow just five of them on the four plants I bought, whose crop of tomatoes worked out at around £20 per pound after all the plants, growbags and fertiliser had been bought – for me it was better and cheaper to drive into Salisbury and buy a pound of them off the market for 50p.  My gardening experience is now confined to mowing, strimming, weeding, burning and generally those more destructive activities which I am rather good at.  I have always left the creative bit to others who know what they are doing. So don’t ever put me on a church flower rota please! The gifts of the Holy Spirit don’t extend to me in that area!  I am, however, slowly beginning to appreciate the wild flowers in my garden – they do seem to do so well so I now leave them alone – well that’s my excuse for not weeding in some areas.  Having just sold my house and buying a smaller one, I am delighted that the new garden is laid almost exclusively to lawn and hopefully, somebody who knows what they are doing, will tend to my potted plants and herbs leaving me to do what I do best – mowing and weeding the lawn. 

I know, this makes me sound like an absolute Philistine - especially in this wonderful rural part of England where I am preaching to a rural community, but I must be honest with you - I hate gardening.  However, my failure at horticulture does not mean that I do not appreciate and love God’s green creations.  In fact, this year in particular, I have taken to enjoying long walks and cycle rides in the country and, at these more leisurely paces, I have really come to love and enjoy the trees all around us - more so than I can remember.  We are so lucky to live in a part of the world which has, on our very doorsteps, such a wealth of forest and woodland – the heart of the New Forest being literally ten minutes’ drive from here with its massive and interestingly shaped oaks.

Today’s readings, and today’s psalm (92) have references to trees and plants and, throughout the bible, they feature heavily in the scriptural messages we find – from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the wooden tree (the cross) to which our Lord was nailed. Trees even get a mention in that apocryphal book, Revelation.  Let’s just think for a moment at some of those other horticultural references we find in the bible – the thicket or hawthorn bush which caught the horns of the ram when Abraham went up to sacrifice Isaac;  the vine in Joseph’s prison dream; Moses’ burning bush in the desert; the cedar trees from Tyre (Lebanon) used to build King Solomon’s Temple; the vine that provided shade and anger to Jonah, the withered fig tree which did not bear fruit in the gospel passages; the tree and its fruit in Matthew’s gospel; the sycamore tree which Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus; the tree on which Judas Iscariot hanged himself; and trees have also feature in popular literature too – the talking trees in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and the wintery trees in C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe”. They are symbols of longevity, of strength, of beauty and precious resources for us to use or abuse.  We can build or we can destroy with the wood they provide. Without really trying, I found 48 references to trees in the bible showing their importance both as actual or allegorical scriptural objects.  Indeed, trees are often referred to as the lungs of our planet – filtering out carbon dioxide and producing life vital oxygen and we have seen the devastation which deforestation can inflict on our world climate – not just the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil; but also the removal of trees in the foothills of the Himalayas has brought about increased flooding in Bangladesh where the River Ganges enters the flat plains of its delta. Those removed trees once stabilised the banks of the Upper Ganges and prevented excessive rainwater entering the river in its upper reaches. Such is their massive importance.

So what is Jesus saying to us in his parable of the mustard seed? And why use this allegory?

 Well first of all I have to admit to being a bit confused when I first read this parable many years ago.  The mustard seeds I was used to as a child produced those small seedlings which my mother would add to egg sandwiches – cress - and in my limited horticultural knowledge mustard was really that yellow paste made in Norwich which accompanies Wiltshire ham on the plate or between two slices of bread! I had never heard of a mustard tree let alone seen one. Having done a little research it appears that the tree which Jesus is almost certainly referring to is the Black Mustard Tree whose botanical name, for you experts, is brassica nigra – a relative apparently of the cabbage plant. It grows mainly in the southern Mediterranean areas, Middle East, Ethiopia and southern Asia and its seeds are used in curries and other spicy dishes where the small seeds are dropped into a pan of hot butter, ghee, and burst releasing their pungent flavour.

However, if the seeds are allowed to grow in the ground then quite quickly they produce a woody stemmed bush or tree some nine-ten feet in height – taller than a human – which would indeed be capable of supporting wildlife – especially birds and providing shade to anyone who sat under it in the hot arid climate.  So Jesus’s use of this in his parable is quite appropriate.

This parable is one of those which appears in all three of the synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – and therefore must be an important lesson for us to receive from Jesus. He is saying that from the smallest of seeds – and the mustard seed is indeed small - can grow something which can provide life and shade – a bit like our English saying – “from the little acorn the mighty oak does grow”. In the version read this morning, from Mark, Jesus does not explain fully what he is getting at and looking at the other gospels in isolation doesn’t help either. We simply have the parable. What we do know is that he is comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to this small seed and the other parables surrounding it likewise start with “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” so we must take all those parables together in order to understand fully what he is saying.  Many people thought that Jesus had come to establish a kingdom in Israel to overcome the Roman occupation but he is emphasising that the kingdom he wishes to establish is a spiritual one.  Indeed, he is probably talking about the establishment of the church here on earth – and indeed it grew rapidly in the years following his crucifixion and resurrection and still exists today – but as well as providing shade and food it could also be used by those who would seek to destroy it or use it for their own evil purposes.

Many scholars take the view, and I agree, that this parable, in particular, was directed at the disciples. At this time Jesus’s church consisted essentially of those few disciples who were following him – disciples who probably felt that they were at odds with mainstream Jewish thinking.  Indeed, we know that after Jesus’s crucifixion they hid away for fear of persecution, not from the Roman authorities, but from their Jewish elders. Jesus is saying that though they are small in number, quite inconsequential in the context of the total numbers of people in Judah at the time, nevertheless like the tiny mustard seed they will grow into a major influence in not only the Holy Land but the whole world – something large and significant. A prophesy of the establishment of the church.

I take much comfort in this.  Look what the Christian church has done in the world? Many organisations for the relief of poverty, oppression and natural disasters, medical care,  housing, reconciliation and counselling,  have their origins in the Church – even Southampton Football Club started life as a church football team – as did Aston Villa, Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Celtic and so on.  If Jesus wasn’t right then how do we explain being here today in church [at a church service] worshipping and listening to the word of God through the gospels 2000 years on?

We are the today’s disciples – we follow Jesus – therefore the parable speaks to us today just as much as it did in the First Century.  In this busy world we might often feel that our Christian beliefs and values are under siege and find it hard to keep the Faith.  We might feel small and insignificant whilst others around us prosper without our Faith.  Just look at the trees.  They are numerous and fill our countryside – each one of them started as a small seedling, then a sapling and finally a mighty tree. God is so good and wants us to know that whilst we have him in our hearts, we are never alone but are members of that wonderful forest which is the Christian family.  Just don’t give me a chain saw!

Amen

 

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SERMON 57 - SUNDAY 12 APRIL 2015

Sermon delivered at St. Mary's and Holy Trinity Church, West Dean and All Saints Church, Farley, Wiltshire– Sunday 12th April 2015

Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21; Acts 4:32-35; John 20:19-31.

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

It was towards the beginning of this morning’s service, before the liturgy of the Word, and not towards the end, that I introduced the Peace – that moment when we acknowledge each other’s presence here in church and in the presence of God.  In the reading from John’s Gospel today, we read the narrative of Jesus’s post-resurrection appearance before the disciples in a locked room, first without Thomas and then with him. Jesus says “Peace be with you” on no less than three occasions in that passage. But the peace which Jesus is offering is not just that feeling of inner peacefulness which descends upon a believer who hears the word and believes; neither does it speak of an agenda for peace in a warring world.  It goes right to the heart of the Jewish hopeful way of life – the word Shalom which speaks of a quality of life which includes but transcends both; rich and fruitful human living – God’s new creation springing into a many coloured flower as Tom Wright so eloquently puts it[1].

In recent days we have become aware more and more of that new creation – that new beginning.  Buds are appearing on the trees, some shrubs like magnolia, forsythia and gorse are in flower, daffodils, tulips and many more meadow flowers springing into life from the seemingly dead bulbs which have lain dormant in the ground.  This is such a lovely time of the year when we see life in all its glory and coming after such a dismal cold dark period.  It’s just like the resurrection after the crucifixion.  For us Christians we believe that the bill has now been paid, Christ’s death and resurrection has brought about that peace which is such a costly item but which has been purchased on the Cross.

For the disciples this must have been a wondrous and bewildering time.  Following the Crucifixion they all ran away and hid and it is clear that they are still in hiding – locked up in a safe house they had sought as shelter from possible persecution and worse.  They would, no doubt, have seen how the crowd had rallied for Barabbas’s release and had sought Jesus’s blood; Peter would no doubt have told them how he was nearly discovered as one of Jesus’s followers and forced to deny Jesus’s existence three times.  For them all seemed to be lost.  They had followed this extraordinary rabbi, but now he had been executed by a foreign occupying power in a most horrible way at the bidding of their own people – the Jews.  Their own fate could follow this exact road.  Now suddenly, here is Jesus back with them – but in a new guise – breathing on them the Holy Spirit, giving them the power to forgive – that gift as explained by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a gift to themselves as much as to the person they are forgiving and in a society where the atonement for sins could only be given by the High Priest during the Festival of Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement.  Now all that had changed.

But one member of the group of 11 is missing – “Thomas the Doubter” who will not believe their story unless he sees Jesus with his own eyes and puts his hands into the nail wounds and pierced side.  Jesus obliges one week letter when a similar occurrence happens-  but with Thomas present who then believes by exclaiming “My Lord and My God” – acknowledging that Jesus is God. 

Jesus’s response gives me, and I think all Christians, great encouragement in times of doubt when he says:

“Have you believed [just] because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”.

This is where our Faith is so important.  Scientists need to prove the existence of everything.  We have heard only this week how the giant Hadron Collider has been brought back into action setting two particles at nearly the speed of light into collision with each other in order to try and isolate the “God Particle” – that piece of matter which brought the universe into existence.  I am sure that my explanation is far too simple in describing the research and academic physics which have been brought into play in undertaking these experiments – my involvement in science ended with my involuntary and accidental euthanasia of the school’s gerbils many years ago – but that is another story.

However I do believe in Jesus Christ Our Saviour, not just by being told this or reading it in the bible but by the wonderful feeling one has when we accept Him – that feeling of the Holy Spirit entering us and being with us – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in us, around us, alongside us, ahead of us and behind us – just in the same way we read in our First Reading of the pillar of smoke – the cloud -surrounding the fleeing Hebrews and protecting them from the following Egyptians during the Exodus.

In that same passage we read of more “Doubting Thomas’s” – how the Hebrew slaves whinged when they said to Moses :

“Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out into the desert to die? What have you done by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’?  It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die [out here] in the desert”.

Throughout the bible it is fair to say that there are many doubters along the way – Gideon needed clear proof of his call, Samuel does not believe God is speaking to him at first (it taking three attempts for God to get through to him), Judas Iscariot doubted Jesus was the Messiah – so it is hardly surprising that there are so many doubters today.  We live in an enlightened and inquiring world – one with enormous communications resources.  It can be even more difficult not to doubt as the scientists evolve more and more ways of seeking to find the meaning of life.

But we Christians have found this already – by the power of the Holy Spirit within each of us.  On Wednesday night I attended a house group within the Team where we discussed this within the context of the Lord’s Prayer. We talked of an innate spirituality within every human being – a desire to connect with our Creator and to talk to him.  For those in the world who are religious this means prayer – not just words of supplication but also of thanksgiving and a need to listen to His still calm voice.  Those who worshiped the Pagan gods also had a deep sense of spirituality and an innermost desire to worship as can be seen by some of the great monuments they left behind – especially in Egypt and close by at Stonehenge.

Ask somebody what it feels like to fall in love?  Scientists have attempted to show that certain chemicals and hormones are responsible but the feeling rises up above all that and is another form of spirituality. Listening to a wonderful piece of music, watching a sunset or sunrise, just looking at all those spring flowers can connect us spiritually with God.

In Acts we read of how this incredible sense of well-being and belief by the early Christians led them to act as one heart and soul and share their possessions. They, in other words, pooled their resources to affirm their faith in Jesus and to help each other achieve what they had been commanded to do by Jesus himself in Matthew 28 – the Great Commission – go out and make disciples of all nations. And in so doing they once again entered into that peace, that shalom, we talked about earlier.

I am a firm believer that we as Christians have a duty to spread this “Shalom” into the wider unbelieving Society.  Recently there was a television programme filmed in my home town of Grimsby showing the plight of the less well-off people on benefits – “Skint” I think it was called.  It honed in on the lives of people with drug and alcohol addictions, criminals, those with relationship problems and generally those on some form of benefit or other.  Yet there in the midst of all that distress there shined a beacon of hope to the community around and in particular the youngsters.  It was a Youth/Community Centre set up right in the middle of the East Marsh of Grimsby.  It is run by a Church of England canon and his assistant, somebody who was themselves a user of the Centre in her earlier days.  There is a genuine feeling of love and well-being at that Centre. It is a place where the youngsters can feel safe off the streets - and literally hundreds and hundreds have passed through its doors. Those working there talk of a sense of peace and tranquillity – of re-birth and fulfilment. Quite a number have felt a strong call to continue to work and help the Centre.  Its name – “The Shalom Centre”.  What a great name and how well that encapsulates the true meaning of the “Shalomic” peace. 

We as members of this church can ourselves show this “shalom” in the way we act and the way we speak to people in our everyday life.  Jesus did not restrict his teaching to the synagogues and Temple but went out amongst the people – right in their midst just like the Shalom Centre in Grimsby.  During the recent House Group I spoke of earlier we spoke about that line in the Lord’s Prayer which reads “Thy kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven”.  Christian life is not simply about gaining favours to find our place in Heaven – it’s also about bringing a bit of Heaven down to Earth now – not in future when Christ returns.

That is why we have been left the Holy Spirit with its gifts and fruits.  Let’s use them to his praise and glory in the true belief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.  To you all I say the Jewish greeting – “Shalom”.

 

Amen

 

MFB/56

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[1] Wright, Tom.  Twelve Months of Sundays 2012 : London SPCK

SERMON 56 - SUNDAY 22 MARCH 2015

Sermon delivered at St. Lawrence’s Parish Church, Stratford-sub-Castle, Wiltshire and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel, Whaddon – Sunday 22nd March 2015

Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33; Romans 5:12-end

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be a blessing to all who hear them.  Amen

Did any of you get to witness the partial eclipse of the Sun on Friday morning? Here in Salisbury it was most disappointing with heavy cloud covering the sky until the eclipse was over – then glorious sunshine!  Ah Well!  What a wonderful sight such eclipses are though, a huge bite out of the solar disc by the Moon’s shadow - but nothing quite surpasses a total eclipse when the light from the Sun is completely blotted out and the land returns to complete darkness as happened on the Faroes this time. I was privileged enough to see this event back in 1999 when I journeyed with my then wife and two and a half year old son to Newquay in Cornwall.  I remember that day well – we journeyed through the night of the previous day to make sure we got there in good time and could book into our hotel on the bay headland.  I remember watching the Sun set in a beautifully cloudless sky over the sea the evening before thinking we were going to have a glorious day for the eclipse.  But this is England!  We woke up to the wind pounding the rain against our hotel room window.  Typical we thought.  The eclipse was due to start at 11.11 a.m. on the 11 August.  After breakfast we decided we would walk out on the headland in the lashing rain armed with a telescope and cameras in order to capture this once-in-a-lifetime event but it seemed hopeless.  At 11 a.m. the sky was overcast but the rain had stopped.  At 11.09 a.m. the clouds parted as though a divine hand had opened the celestial curtains and we saw the total eclipse of the Sun in all its glory.  Street lights came on, seabirds returned to the land to roost, dogs howled, the temperature dropped dramatically and shivering people shouted, screamed and hugged each other and cries of “Oh My God” rang out!  As we stood there, looking up at the Sun’s corona and all the stars and planets, now visible in the mid-morning, my thoughts went to how this must have been viewed by ancient people who had no knowledge of the continuous celestial dance of the Sun, Moon and planets. A shiver ran down my spine and I could see how ancient people had worshipped the Sun at Stonehenge and how dreadful it must have been for it suddenly to appear to have been blotted out – perhaps never to return.  We, of course now know that by an ingenious stroke of Creation – the Moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun and just happens to be 400 times smaller – hence its shadow perfectly fits across the Sun’s disc for the limited period it passes in front of the Sun on its monthly lunar orbit.

Today is Passiontide Sunday, when we ponder on the whole Easter story as it begins to unfold  and we read in the bible of the occurrence of a total eclipse of the Sun on a very important day and time – the moment Jesus Christ died on the Cross.   We read that darkness descended over the whole land and another event occurred – the renting of the curtain in the Temple’s Holy of Holy’s.  Not rent from bottom to top as would be the case if a human being had torn it, but from top to bottom – a sign of divine intervention.  As darkness descended and the light of the world was snuffed out, a channel was made between us and God – a direct line of communication as though God was suddenly encouraging us to be his Facebook friend!  His chosen people could communicate by prayer directly with him – they no longer needed to go through the contortions associated with the complex Temple system with all its convolutions and corruptness (we heard about the moneylenders in the Temple recently).  In Romans 5, Paul is saying to the Church in Rome, that by this one act of Jesus, his death for our sins, God has given us much grace and this grace from God is totally free.

I don’t know about you but I am a bit of a sucker for the BOGF – “Buy one get one free”.  Whether I really want a second item or not – it’s free after all!  We all like to think that we are getting a bargain.  I remember hearing once of somebody wanting to get rid of a bicycle.  They advertised it as free to a good home on their front.  There were no takers. People were suspicious.   The moment the owners  put a sign on it saying it was for sale for £10 it was taken, nicked, the following day. Says a lot about human nature does that!  So, when God says I am giving you a free gift – salvation for your soul, righteousness, repentance – he is actually putting a price on it – obedience to him. 

In Hebrews 5, the writer talks about Jesus as the Great High Priest.  What does he mean?  When the Temple curtain was torn, as we have already said, there was a direct channel of communication with God – the need for the Great High Priest to intercede on the Day of Atonement was negated and as we know, Peter later goes on to talk about the “Priesthood of all Believers” (1 Peter 2:9 and again in Revelation 5:10) – something I am very keen to evangelize as a lay minister – I guess I am a Lutheran at heart – Peter addresses the Hebrews in these terms:

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2)

The writer of Hebrews talks about Christ being a priest like Melchizedek.  What does that mean?  Isn’t this all a little confusing?  Do we need a Great High Priest or not?

We must remember that the writer of Hebrews, a much underrated book in my view and one which I think all Christians should read as a means of understanding and appreciating the importance of the Jewish heritage of our own Faith, and a link between the Old and the New Testaments, is writing in a manner which will make the reader more readily understand Christianity in his/her own age and context. For example it is a bit like trying to explain the rules of cricket to an American whose only knowledge of games with bats and balls is American baseball.  You need to explain to him that a cricket bat is like a baseball bat except….. or the pitcher pitches but the cricketer bowls the ball etc. Therefore in trying to explain the role of Christ and the relevance of his Passion it is necessary to compare him to an ancient priest from their own history - Melchizedek.  And to do that it was necessary for me to do a bit of research on good old Wikipedia as to whom Melchizedek was.

Well the first thing I learned was that Melchizedek is the name of a 30-litre bottle of champagne – imagine that a bottle that holds the equivalent of 40 ordinary bottles of champagne!  It would be a great party that required a Melchizedek!  That’s probably why I’ve never seen one. If nothing else, you’ve learned the answer to a good pub quiz question!

My source tells me that Melchizedek was King/Priest of Salem who gave Abram bread and wine after Abram had defeated King Kedorlaomer.(Genesis 14:18)  He is also mentioned in Psalm 110 (v. 4) when David writes:

 “The Lord has sworn

And will not change his mind

You are a priest for ever

In the order of Melchezedek”

It seems therefore that the writer of Hebrews is likening Jesus to a former king who was both kind and righteous and I think it interesting and not insignificant that in the quote from Genesis, Abram is refreshed by bread and wine.  This would not have gone unnoticed by the Hebrew readers – a prophesy of the Last Supper – a remembrance and a celebration.

Jesus is there to refresh us today – remember how he tells the woman at the well that the water he can provide will quench her thirst for ever.

The importance of all the readings today and of the celebration of the beginning of Passiontide is to remember and celebrate that it is only through obedience and belief in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Saviour that we can be saved and have eternal life.

Recently I heard that 95% of churchgoers (and I know that this does not include you) never read their bible.  What they know of it is what they hear on Sundays when it is read out to them.  More alarmingly, a massive percentage of the population have absolutely no idea what Easter is about except that it seems to have a lot to do with rabbits, eggs and chocolate but even then they don’t really know why.  It is simply another holiday and religion should be kept out of it.

We who have given our life to Christ are indeed holy priests.  The way to eternal life is by following the teachings of Christ but above all recalling that, in the words of John (John 3:18)

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe in him already stands condemned.  Light came into the world but Man loved darkness because their deeds were evil”.

Paul says, in Ephesians 5:8 :

“For you were once darkness, but now you have the light in the Lord.  Live as children of light for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness righteousness and truth.”

Very often I look at the world and think we are indeed in darkness.  But I remember that the Trinitarian God is always there.  Just as on that August day in 1999 when darkness descended upon Cornwall, the Sun never left the sky neither will God abandon us.

Amen

 

MFB/56